<p>hi! i'm a senior in high school and i've been accepted at a few small schools and was wait listed at a few well known schools. I got into IIT, RIT, and Clark, but was wait listed at RPI and WPI. Anyway, what I was wondering is if i decide to go on to graduate school later on how important is the name of school that I go to for undergraduate? I've been considering RIT, because they have a very large math department and are doing research in areas that would interest me. Their computer engineering program seems to be very good too. So, I've been wondering if I would want to go to a top school for graduate school, will it matter that much if I apply from a school like RIT if everything else is solid?</p>
<p>It usually doesn't matter unless there's a big disparity. I would say if you're from one of the ivies, MIT, or Stanford etc, you might get a little extra boost, but there's no difference in terms of the schools that you just mentioned. If you're talking about an Ivy or a community college then yes it does matter, but all those schools you mentioned should give you equal standing in terms of graduate admissions.</p>
<p>It matters in two areas:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Applying to extremely competitive programs. PhD in Economics at Harvard, for example, receives boatloads of applications from qualified, similar applicants with perfect GPA's and test scores which often means that the admission board has the luxury of choosing applicants from the UG schools with the most rigorous ECON programs.</p></li>
<li><p>Applying to a less well known school for grad school. Alot of schools want students from Ivies to fill their grad ranks just so they can go out and say they have grad students from Harvard or Princeton. In Canada, for instance, you need about a 3.8/167 to be accepted at the University of Toronto Law School (Canada's best). That scores goes down dramatically (think 3.2/162) if you are coming from an Ivy. It's pretty ridiculous, but it happens. I think it happens more in Canada, though...</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Ok I guess that helps a bit. I'm not really sure if I want to stay on the waiting list at RPI, because I just don't find their math program all that interesting. I am trying to decide between majoring in math, computer engineering, or maybe both. I am very interested in IIT's math program and will be going there next friday.</p>
<p>I remember visiting RIT about six years ago (back when I was undergrad school hunting) and one of the first questions I asked was what percentage of students there go on to grad school. The person laughed a little and said somewhere between 5-10%. The only problem I had with that was I knew I wanted to go to grad school, and I feel it's a lot more enriching to be in a program where more of your peers are going to grad school as well (about half of my graduating class went to grad school and half went into industry).</p>
<p>Well, from what I heard RIT has one of the lowest retention rates in the country. I guess they accept a lot of kids who think college is just like high school. They go there and found out that the programs at RIT are very challenging because of the quarter system. It also has to do with the weather and lack of girls too. Some of the things that I didn't like about RIT were the dorms and campus, but their computer engineering program seems to be good. However, I realize that I am going to college to study, so maybe the dorms and the campus shouldn't play a big role in my decision. The thing I like were their labs, they are some of the best I have seen. I also asked what percentage of students go on to grad school and the lady in the admissions office told me that she doesn't know, because kids generally deal with professors when applying to graduate school. </p>
<p>Anyway, I did some research on graduate schools just to get a better idea of what I need to do in college. It seems like the chances of getting into Stanford or MIT for PhD in CS are better than at UC Berkeley. Is this a correct assessment?</p>
<p>what is RIT?</p>
<p>Rochester Institute of Technology, I'd imagine.</p>
<p>I don't think your chances would be any better at Berkeley than MIT, Stanford, or CMU (ahem). I think at that level it becomes more an issue of fit to professors' research interests than anything else if you're of the caliber to be admitted. Also, just to let you know, since RIT is a bit more industry oriented than the four schools you listed here you'll need to be sure to fill your summers with research and things of that sort to give your application that extra edge.</p>
<p>Also, moving from computer engineering to CS at those top ranked schools will probably be somewhat difficult unless you take all of the really important CS classes as an undergrad.</p>
<p>One of the other problems is that at rit you lose 2 summers to either classes or co-op, so maybe rit isn't the right school for me. I also know that I don't want to major in pure cs at the undergrad level because I've always been under the impression that its not really about cs but its about learning a programming language, which is why I am more interested in computer engineering and math.</p>
<p>I heard back from the last school I was waiting for today. Another wait list. So, I've been wait listed at RPI, WPI, and Stevens Tech. I got into Clark, IIT, RIT, and was denied from Northeastern and Virginia Tech. I am honestly surprised I even made it on to the waiting list at RPI. I thought I would get into WPI and Stevens Tech though.</p>
<p>Dude,
You like the specific Math department stuff they're doing at RIT. Which means you will be excited and enthusiastic, which will, with any luck, get you a research job, experience, and great recommendations. It is true that people generally deal with professors- why don't you contact the math dept profs and ask THEM about grad school (apologies if you have)?</p>
<p>Also, I've taken two CS classes at my LAC, both in programming. The profs make a huge point to point out that after you know how to code, you're done with it, that CS is not really programming, but applied philosophy. Then you learn theory and ... other stuff (see I'm graduating).</p>
<p>
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I've always been under the impression that its not really about cs but its about learning a programming language, which is why I am more interested in computer engineering and math.
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</p>
<p>At schools which focus more on teaching people to go into the workforce with just a bachelor's degree this is probably true, however at higher-level schools (I imagine RPI does this) CS is a lot more about theory and developing algorithms and you probably won't take a class in how to learn a language after your freshman year (you'll just be expected to pick it up along with the rest of your coursework).</p>
<p>As for the "losing" summers, you're not really losing them, you're just having them pre-filled for you. Most college students don't take summers off, they try to find internships or research experiences within their field of study to keep them busy (and earn a few bucks on the side).</p>
<p>I went to a average school for my Undergraduate degree. I was able get into schools ranked from 10-20 easily but only got into one school ranked from 1-10. </p>
<p>I feel the main reason I didn't get into those schools was because my school for my Undergraduate is not prestigious and pretty unknown. Same thing with funding.</p>
<p>It turns out that for computational and applied math majors at RIT co-op is optional. I've been wondering does doing a co-op help when applying to graduate schools? I know it would probably help if you did some research during your co-op and would also provide you with the possibility of getting a good recommendation, but do professors like to see real world experience from applicants? I also emailed a professor in the math department at RIT. I will also email a CS professor. However, I'm still unsure about pure CS, because I am definitely interested in hardware too. For my senior project this year I am building an electronic drumset using a pic microcontroller. Its all done, but it doesn't exactly work yet. I am also working on a FM synthesizer. Maybe one of the professors in the CE department at RIT will be able to share their views on going to for CS graduate school with a degree in CE as opposed a pure CS degree. I also forgot to mention that my mom is really against me majoring in math, but thats really her problem!</p>
<p>I think you'd be better off doing summer research at a university than doing a co-op program unless you can somehow work at a company that's based around doing research (or work in the research lab of a large company).</p>